Mass deportations will not make us safer; targeted prosecution can

Last week, police officials in Baltimore revealed the results of a joint state, local and federal crackdown called “Operation Tornado Alley” that lived up to its tumultuous title: Four violent crime organizations were dismantled and nearly 40 people were (so far) criminally charged. with dozens of illegal weapons, a fleet of stolen vehicles and a quantity of narcotics in custody. It’s been years since police achieved such resounding results in a single campaign, and those involved were justifiably proud – including federal authorities, who linked these firearms to as many as 47 shootings through a national ballistics database.

And what else needs to be considered in this closely coordinated effort? It had nothing to do with rounding up immigrants. According to the Baltimore City Attorney’s Office, none of the suspects are undocumented or involved in human trafficking or other immigration issues. This simply involved pursuing people who had broken the law – the effort began as an investigation by the Baltimore Police Department – and then doing old-fashioned police work, including wiretaps to collect evidence before conducting nighttime raids.

Now compare that with the ambitions of President-elect Donald Trump and his chosen “border czar” Tom Homan to carry out mass deportations of undocumented people. It’s one thing to prosecute criminal drug dealers, murderers or human traffickers, but it’s not at all clear that the Trump administration intends to make a distinction between serious lawbreakers and men, women and children who simply come to this country without legal documents have entered the country and are now leading a productive life, working, paying taxes and starting families. That leaves state and local law enforcement in a dilemma: cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or not?

The most sensible position would be to promise cooperation when federal authorities are genuinely targeting serious lawbreakers, but not when they simply intend to conduct mass raids. The latter form of action would be costly — distracting police and prosecutors from serious efforts like Operation Tornado Alley, while stoking distrust in targeted Latino neighborhoods and diverting valuable law enforcement resources. But when local leaders like Denver Mayor Mike Johnston suggested that local police wouldn’t deal with mass deportations, Homan threatened to put the Democrat in jail.

“The mayor of Denver and I agree on one thing,” Homan told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “He’s willing to go to prison, I’m willing to put him in prison.”

Such persistence may be well received by Trump and his inner circle, and it could even win the favor of Americans who were made fearful of the undocumented as an existential threat by not-so-subtle racist political messages before, during and after the presidential campaign it doesn’t correspond to reality. Studies show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the United States. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen, but it does mean that murder suspects like the Venezuelan migrant who was recently sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of 22-year-old Laken Riley at the University of Georgia are the exception rather than the rule are . And he posed no threat due to a lack of legal presence.

All too often, the conversation about immigration is stripped of all its complexity. Communities that seek a middle ground and provide a welcoming place for law-abiding immigrants are considered “sanctuaries” that provide shelter for criminals. But studies have also shown that average Americans would suffer if the country suddenly lost millions of tax-paying undocumented workers. These individuals together make up 5% of the workforce and the costs of mass deportations would be significant, particularly for the agriculture, construction and leisure and hospitality sectors.

Trump’s allies insist that ICE will, at least initially, pursue serious criminals and those who pose real threats to national security. If this is true, we expect that law enforcement at the state and local levels will be happy to cooperate. But if it is just a misnomer and the real goal is mass arrests, detention camps and deportations, we would expect valuable resources to be allocated to more productive strategies. Protecting the public shouldn’t be about politics, it should be about truly protecting the public.

Baltimore Sun editors provide opinion and analysis on news and issues relevant to readers. They work separately from the newsroom.